Shop Premises of Charles Riches and Private House to Rear is a Grade II listed building in the East Hertfordshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 6 June 1952. A C18 Commercial/residential.

Shop Premises of Charles Riches and Private House to Rear

WRENN ID
leaning-column-river
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
East Hertfordshire
Constituency
Hertford and Stortford MP: Josh Dean (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
6 June 1952
Type
Commercial/residential
Address
Shop Premises of Charles Riches and Private House to Rear, 1, the Square, Sawbridgeworth
OS grid reference
TL 484 148
Coordinates
51.81223, 0.15138
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The building consists of the shop premises of Charles Riches and a private house to the rear, dating from the 18th century, with a shop building from the 19th century at the corner and an earlier lower part in Church Street. It features a tall timber frame plastered house with a steep tiled roof, and the front is lined with ashlar. The south flank wall, uncovered by demolition in 1981, revealed panelled chevron pargetting that had been covered over in the 19th century. The structure has two storeys above a brick base and a symmetrical five-window front. It includes flush box sashes with glazing bars and a modillioned eaves cornice. The central entrance consists of a six-panel door, with pilasters supporting a full entablature that features a Gothic fret in the frieze and a triangular pediment. The adjacent shop building has a two-storey plastered facade with a steep hipped slate roof, overhanging bracketed eaves, and a deep plain frieze leading up to a canted corner. The three-window, two-storey section in Church Street has similar bracketed eaves to its slate roof but lacks a frieze. It features flush box sash windows with moulded architraves, although these are late 19th century, with 2/2 paned sashes. The continuous 19th-century shop front includes paired pilasters, a deep fascia, and paired brackets supporting a continuous overhanging cornice. These interesting buildings are prominent in street views.

Local climate

Shop Premises of Charles Riches and Private House to Rear sits in one of the driest parts of the UK, with an average of 690 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 95% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 91% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 34 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 52% of listed buildings. Of these, 17 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
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